Have You No Decency, Sir? Reality-Based Community, Pt. 2

For the last couple of years, I've been making the argument that liberals and conservatives need to turn down the volume and treat each other like fellow Americans with different points of view. Sometimes, to be honest, this is really hard to do. After Glenn Beck accuses the president of having a "deep-seated hatred for white people" or Rush Limbaugh says the president is deliberately trying to destroy America because he wants to punish white people for slavery — and the leaders of the Republican party greet this madness with tacit approval — it is very, very, very hard not to respond with outrage and anger.

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It's no fun being Ned Flanders in a Scarface world.

I also wonder if it's counterproductive. Maybe the far leftists are right and only pressure from real socialists will make our modern conservatives appreciate how moderate President Obama really is.

This group seeks to dominate or destroy those they view as foes. They do not seek peaceful coexistence, or building a better system for everybody, and have no interest in running things wisely or well. Their goals are radical, and they will lie, cheat and steal shamelessly to achieve them. They will not stop voluntarily, and are extremely dangerous in positions of power. Basically, in a classic case of projection, they are as implacable and ruthless as the foes they demonize with their distorting, McCarthyite rhetoric.

Of the Roves, Limbaughs, Becks, and Kristols, this is pretty much true. Also, just about everyone on Fox except for Shep (The Sane One) Smith. But I get stuck here:

They're authoritarians, stomping on almost every part of the Constitution save the Second Amendment. They oppose Freedom of Religion, warrants for searches, due process, humane treatment and freedom from torture, and basic civil liberties for anyone they don't like.

Now, that's just not fair. Aside from a few wacko Islamophobes who want to burn Korans, virtually every conservative who opposes the mosque insists that he supports freedom of religion but wants the mosque builders to move away from Ground Zero voluntarily. I take them at their word. Opposing warrants? Only on terrorist cell phones and the hubs they go through, which is a complicated thing that even Obama supports. Ditto due process, freedom from torture and the rest. These were aberrations during time of war, and it's just not accurate to pretend they are definitional to all conservatives.

The problem is, passionate liberals believe in their righteousness no less than passionate conservatives, and they're just as reluctant to see why a rational person would think differently. It's easier to call them crazy. But A) it's a little weird for liberals who think Wall Street is a giant scam to get so furious with conservatives who think Wall Street is a giant scam. And B) giving into anger just cements both sides into warring tribes.

Vagabond Scholar concludes:

You don't compromise or make peace with Joe McCarthy. You challenge him, expose him, debunk him and defeat him.

But McCarthy didn't fall because someone yelled back. And he didn't fall because of the newspaper exposes or brave liberal editorials or leftists raging in the streets. He fell because he went too far. He spread so much viciousness and bile that America finally had enough. When an army lawyer named Joseph Welch said the magic words, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?", his quiet dignity broke the spell.

It will be the same this time. Maybe the Republicans will sweep into government in November, maybe they'll shut down the government and even launch another impeachment. But eventually, if we keep our cool and avoid getting dragged into a street fight, this spell will break.